Every good business owner should know that having a firm grasp of marketing trends
and success stories will contribute greatly to their own business’ success. After all,
engaging marketing brings in new customers, higher profits and more long-term
benefits for the business.
In thinking about marketing your business, you may have many questions including:
- What’s the difference between online and offline marketing?
- Is one better than the other?
- Which is the better option for my business?
These are all important questions, and this guide will aim to help you in your answer
seeking.
What Is Online Marketing?
Online marketing involves you promoting your business, product, or service on the
internet via a website, online ads, or social media platforms. Getting those clicks and
likes!
Benefits Of Online Marketing Include:
- You can measure engagement with your content and promotions. On social
media platforms, you can pull up data to see what your audience thinks of your
brand and marketing. If you’re seeing lots of likes and shares of your content,
then surely, you’re doing something right! Often the analytics data you can pull
up can be split by times too, so you know when peak engagement with your post
was and when the hype died down, so to speak. - It’s easy to track your return on investment (ROI). You can track clicks and
sales when using ads online, so you can easily see which ads are the most
profitable for you. This will help you to make smart decisions regarding future
marketing strategies and campaigns. Basically it you can see what ads worked
and which didn’t. - You can target specific demographics. With online marketing tools, you can
target specific people to your ads and offers. By targeting key demographics with
imagery and words, it is more likely they will buy your products.
There Are Also Some Negatives To Using Online Marketing:
- Digital advertisements can be annoying. While it’s certainly known that
advertisers target ads specifically to demographics, barraging them with ads for
products that they searched for previously can be highly annoying and even drive
them away from a brand. In a user’s mind they see it as a breach of their privacy
and may be turned off. - Online marketing is constantly evolving. Whether it’s the latest social media
platform or a change to the search engine algorithm, there are always new things
to learn and take notice of for online marketing. If you don’t keep up with
important trends, you may find yourself being left behind the competition.
What Is Offline Marketing?
Offline marketing is typically any marketing that does not involve the internet, so any
print advertisement or television spot are good examples of this type of marketing. This
would be a more traditional approach to marketing.
Benefits Of Offline Marketing Include:
- It can be impactful and easy to understand. A billboard or TV commercial will
becomes part of a person’s daily life, so it will usually be easy to understand and
digest. Never underestimate the power of a TV ad jingle or a billboard slogan. - Printed marketing materials are often permanent. Unless a magazine is
recycled or put in the trash, then the advertisements found within will be
permanent. So they can still work weeks or even months, after first being
published. Think of it as like a one off, rather than recurring, fee.
Which is Better for You?
Both online and offline marketing have their pros and cons, as you have read.
Offline marketing is seen as more traditional and is be better aimed at older
demographics, whereas online marketing is generally a better option to engage with
younger demographics. However, these are only generalities and might not apply to
your business.
Plus, you don’t have to choose one over the other. A combination of online and
offline marketing may work best for your business.
Owners will need to understand that for marketing success a clear budget is set and a
target audience identified. Study the audience and go with what you think will work best
with them, keeping your budget in mind. This will get you started.
Then, track what you can to determine which campaigns bring you the greatest profits.
Run new campaigns and track those. Experience is the best determiner. Analyze as
you go and stick with what’s working the best for your company until you find a new
campaign that drives even greater profits.